Portal:New Zealand

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New Zealand
Aotearoa (Māori)
A map of the hemisphere centred on New Zealand, using an orthographic projection.
Location of New Zealand, including outlying islands, its territorial claim in the Antarctic, and Tokelau
ISO 3166 codeNZ

New Zealand (Māori: Aotearoa [aɔˈtɛaɾɔa]) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui) and the South Island (Te Waipounamu)—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland.

A developed country, it was the first to introduce a minimum wage, and the first to give women the right to vote. It ranks very highly in international measures of quality of life, human rights, and it has low levels of perceived corruption. It retains visible levels of inequality, having structural disparities between its Māori and European populations. New Zealand underwent major economic changes during the 1980s, which transformed it from a protectionist to a liberalised free-trade economy. The service sector dominates the national economy, followed by the industrial sector, and agriculture; international tourism is also a significant source of revenue. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, UKUSA, OECD, ASEAN Plus Six, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Pacific Community and the Pacific Islands Forum. It enjoys particularly close relations with the United States and is one of its major non-NATO allies; the United Kingdom; Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga; and with Australia, with a shared "Trans-Tasman" identity between the two countries stemming from centuries of British colonisation. (Full article...)

This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.

Brigadier Miles, 1940–41

Brigadier Reginald Miles, CBE, DSO & Bar, MC (10 December 1892 – 20 October 1943) was a professional soldier who served in the New Zealand Military Forces during the First and Second World Wars.

Miles was a New Zealand entrant into the Australian Royal Military College, Duntroon, from which he graduated in 1914. He served as an artillery officer in the First World War and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his actions during the German spring offensive. He remained in the military after the war, holding artillery commands for the next several years. When the Second World War broke out, Miles was the Quartermaster General of the New Zealand Military Forces. In 1940, he was seconded to the 2nd New Zealand Division as its commander of artillery. He saw action during the Battle of Greece and later during Operation Crusader in North Africa. Captured during fighting near Tobruk in late 1941, he was held in a prisoner of war camp in Italy but escaped in April 1943 with five other officers, including fellow New Zealander James Hargest. By October, Miles had made his way to Spain where, overcome with depression, he committed suicide. (Full article...)

General images

The following are images from various New Zealand-related articles on Wikipedia.

More Did you know? - show different entries

... that multinational GlaxoSmithKline was founded in Bunnythorpe, New Zealand in 1904, under the slogan "Glaxo builds bonny babies"?

Two chocolate fish
Two chocolate fish

... that the chocolate fish is a "species" indigenous to New Zealand?

... that the Six o'clock swill was not abolished in New Zealand until 1967?

...that the Coenocorypha snipes once ranged from New Caledonia and Fiji to New Zealand but are now restricted to New Zealand's outlying islands?

... that Ira Goldstein, an advertisement campaign character for the ASB Bank in New Zealand, supposedly drives a metallic-brown 1979 Princess 2000 HL?

Selected article - show another

The koru is the Māori name given to the new unfurling fern frond and symbolizes new life, growth, strength and peace. It is an integral symbol in Māori carving and tattoos.

Koru can also refer to bone carvings. Those generally take the shape of the uncurling fern plant. When bone is worn on the skin, it changes colour as oil is absorbed. The Māori took this to symbolise that the spirit of the person was inhabiting the pendant. When someone gives a pendant to someone else, it is the custom that they wear it for a time so that part of their spirit is given as well. (Full article...)

Selected picture - show another

Jean Batten's Percival Gull, G-ADPR, preserved at Auckland International Airport
Jean Batten's Percival Gull, G-ADPR, preserved at Auckland International Airport

Jane Gardner Batten CBE OSC (15 September 1909 – 22 November 1982), commonly known as Jean Batten, was a New Zealand aviator who made several record-breaking flights – including the first solo flight from England to New Zealand in 1936. (Full article...)

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

  • ... that New Zealand potter Hardy Browning began his career as a coal miner?
  • ... that The New Zealand Herald opposed a children's hospital in favour of a statue of Queen Victoria?
  • ... that as a child, New Zealand economist Brad Olsen would write notes about stock market trends while watching the evening news?
  • ... that New Zealand health executive Sharon Shea points to distrust in authority caused by "post-colonisation trauma" for low COVID-19 vaccination rates of Māori?
  • ... that Scottish painter Gordon Coutts left Australia without paying maintenance to his estranged wife, but was arrested in New Zealand?
  • ... that when soprano Rosina Buckman returned to New Zealand for a concert tour in 1922, the prime minister and a former prime minister spoke at the reception?
  • ... that Bell Tea, founded in 1898, is the oldest tea company in New Zealand?
  • ... that Cobb Power Station has the highest-elevation hydroelectric storage lake in New Zealand?

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